Music News

Everyone’s a musician nowadays — and every tech company is also a music company, it seems. This week alone, two separate news items hinted at where strong winds are blowing for the music industry: first, a paid streaming service created by the owner of TikTok, and second, a new feature within Snapchat that may offer music in users’ posts.



On Monday, Bloomberg reported that ByteDate, the Chinese parent company of the video-app-slash-meme-wonderland TikTok, will launch a paid music-streaming service in several emerging territories later this year, with ambitions to expand it to other countries as well. And at the close of the week today, the Wall Street Journal reported that Silicon Valley darling Snapchat is in talks with Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Group to acquire licenses to “expand the ways users can include music in posts on its flagship Snapchat app,” which would presumably allow the use of thousands of song snippets into the platform’s signature disappearing photos and videos.

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Days after Stephen Malkmus admitted in the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast that he would be open to a Pavement reunion, the beloved indie rock band revealed Saturday that they will perform a pair of European shows in 2020. The gigs mark Pavement’s first together since the band’s 2010 reunion.

Barcelona’s Primavera Sound – where Malkmus and the Jicks performed on Thursday – made the reunion official Saturday on social media, confirming that the reunited Pavement would perform at the 2020 Primavera Sound in Barcelona and its sister fest NOS Primavera Sound in Porto, Portugal.

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The 2019 CMT Music Awards are underway at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, June 5th, with hosts Little Big Town and performances by Kane Brown, Thomas Rhett and Luke Combs. Among the show’s winners is Carrie Underwood, who claimed Female Video of the Year for “Love Wins” from her album Cry Pretty, as well as Keith Urban and Julia Michaels, whose “Coming Home” was named Collaborative Video of the Year.

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Soundgarden, Tom Petty’s ex-wife Jane, Hole, Steve Earle and the estate of Tupac Shakur have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a class against Universal Music Group, seeking damages related to a 2008 fire that allegedly destroyed over 500,000 recordings.

The suit accuses Universal Music of negligence in not doing enough to prevent the fire, as well as concealing the extent of the destruction from artists while simultaneously pursuing litigation and insurance claims to recoup losses. The suit claims that Universal took in settlement proceeds and insurance claims valued at $150 million, and the class is seeking damages worth half that, plus half of any additional losses.

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Dave Bartholomew, the New Orleans musician, Fats Domino collaborator and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who co-wrote the R&B classic “Ain’t That a Shame,” has died at the age of 100.
Bartholomew died Sunday at a New Orleans-area hospital, his son Dave Bartholomew Jr. confirmed to the Associated Press. “His body simply broke down. Daddy was 100 years and six months old. It was just that time,” Bartholomew Jr. said.

A trumpeter, bandleader, producer and arranger who worked with artists like Domino, Lloyd Price, Smiley Lewis and Shirley & Lee, the Louisiana-born Bartholomew had a lasting impact on both the music of New Orleans and R&B of the Fifties, which in turn inspired the rock music that emerged in the early Sixties.

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Festivalgoers in Belgium just had their own Fyre Festival-like experience Friday as the country’s VestiVille was canceled at the last minute after thousands had already arrived. Cardi B, A$AP Rocky, Future, Meek Mill, Migos and more were set to headline VestiVille this weekend in Lommel, Belgium when the festival was abruptly canceled Friday.

Earlier in the day, A$AP Rocky, Friday’s headliner, informed fans that he would not perform “due to security and infrastructure concerns.” “The promoters told me it would be handled but unfortunately for you and me they didn’t,” the rapper tweeted.

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Country music and the Fourth of July go together like a firecracker and a match. This year, a number of Nashville stars are performing at concerts and displays around the country, including the biggies in New York City and Washington, D.C. Here’s how to watch four of the U.S.’s most iconic Independence Day celebrations.

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Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic was back in Austin, Texas, on Thursday to celebrate Independence Day. Alison Krauss returned for the first time since 2016, joining Jamey Johnson, Billy Joe Shaver, Steve Earle & the Dukes, and Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, who made their Picnic debut. Luke Combs also performed at his first Picnic, delivering a powerful set of hits like “Beautiful Crazy,” “Hurricane” and his new single, “Beer Never Broke My Heart.”

Of course, it’s the Red Headed Stranger who ties it all together. The outlaw country legend offered his customary staples, from “Whiskey River” to “On the Road Again,” and also nodded to Hank Williams with “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” and “Hey Good Lookin’.”

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It was once “strictly 4 Madonna.” But now, a handwritten apology letter that Tupac Shakur wrote the Material Girl a year before his death is going to auction.

Two years ago, Madonna attempted to stop its sale when she told a judge that her celebrity “does not obviate my right to maintain my privacy.” An appeals court overturned that injunction last month. The letter is headed to the auction block on July 17th with bids starting at $100,000. Auctioneer Gotta Have Rock and Roll estimates it will go for between $200,000 to $300,000 even though scans of it have been floating around the Internet for years and you can even read it in full on its website.

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“We’re the Highwomen, sing a story still untold,” sang Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby at their first-ever performance as the Highwomen Friday evening at the Newport Folk Festival. The supergroup was also backed by a band that included Jason Isbell and the Hanseroth Twins during the hourlong set.

“This is our first show y’all, and we’re fucking terrified,” Carlile told the crowd early on. But the band’s debut show was rapturously received. The group traded off vocals in each other’s songs, performing their forthcoming debut album in-order before reprising their lead single “Redesigning Women” for a bonus encore performance.

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